10 Steps to Personal Branding Success

Posted at June 16, 2009

Personal Branding Series

Today’s blog post walks you through 10 simple steps that guarantee personal branding success. Excellence in personal branding takes time. The following steps will save you time and agony in your branding efforts.

1 – Who am I?

Personal branding is the sum total of perceptions that others have of you. To be able to change how others perceive you, you must understand yourself first. Who are you? What are your core values? What is your character based on your history? What are your talents, passion or experiences? What kind of personal brand image do you currently have?

2 – Brand Vision

Sit back and think about the kind of personal brand you want to have. What do you want people to think of you? Visualize where you want to be. Define what you consider as the apex of personal branding. How can you get there? What is your mission in life and how does it fit with your desired personal brand?

3 – Target Audience

Do not flatter yourself that everyone is a candidate for your personal brand. You have to select who you want to be the target of your personal branding efforts. Think of those people you want to target. Give them a name, talk to them, be with them, and understand how they currently feel about you.

Consider segmenting your target audience for various personal branding messages. For example, you can communicate one aspect to your work friends, and a different aspect to your church friends.

4 – Dropping Excess Baggage

Think of all the things that currently limit your personal brand from thriving. Do you have the fear success or failure? Do you have confidence issues? Eliminate your fears and work on boosting your confidence. Avoid self limiting beliefs and self sabotage.

We are creatures of habit. You may want to avoid some habits that are detrimental to your personal brand. There may also be people that pull you down; decide how you want  to deal with them.

5 – Personal Cheering Squad

Find people who believe in you and foster relationships with them. This can help you improve your confidence and enhance your personal brand. Find people you admire and get them to mentor you.

Your cheering squad can become evangelists of your personal brand. Give them good reasons to talk about you. It may mean doing more than your call of duty. Give them a simple way to talk about you. Consider getting a slogan for your personal branding.

6 – Personal Brand Packaging

A present that is nicely wrapped up has a higher perceived value. It shows care, effort and dedication. Decide how you want to package your personal brand. Wrap yourself up nicely in nice clothing, signature way of doing things or memorable words. Find an angle and package yourself in a way that is attractive to your target audience.

7 – Be Yourself

Be happy in your own skin. Accept yourself for who you are. Let your confidence shine through in everything you do. Being yourself does not mean settling for less.

8 – Personal Branding Action Plan

Create a step by step action plan for developing various aspects and qualities of your personal brand. Do not let things just happen; plan your personal brand to excruciating details. Many people do not this. Be ahead of the pack.

Plan exactly how you are going to go about creating your personal brand. Plan your brand message and packaging. Determine how you are going to fund your branding efforts (you know it is not free right?). Decide how you are going to spend money on your personal brand (e.g. haircut, clothes, training, travel, dining etc). Think through all aspects of your personal brand and how they interrelate and chart a path forward.

9 – Personal Brand Evaluation

Evaluate your personal branding at strategic intervals. Check to see if you are following your action plan. Get feedback from your target audience. Ask a trusted friend or a professional to help you evaluate your personal brand. You may be surprised by what you learn.

10 – Continuous Improvement

Improve gradually based on what you learn during the evaluation step. Conduct a SWOT analysis of your personal brand. Keep improving your style, confidence, networks and skills.

Summary

The road to personal branding success begins with a single step. I hope this blog post has given you some pointers on where to start. I would love to hear your comments.

Series Navigation«Personal Branding Salad BarHow to Ruin Your Personal Brand»

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